MONTREAL — The years that have passed — it has been more than a quarter-century now — have blurred the memory somewhat.

It's understandable. Andrew Jones was a little boy at the time, not yet 5. But while some of the memories might have faded, a child will never forget the love he received from a parent. That much is undeniable.

"I remember her taking us to the store ... my sister Christine and I were close in age ... buying us candy, taking us to the mall and buying us clothes," Jones, an offensive-lineman with the Toronto Argonauts, explained over the phone this week. "I'd go into (my parents') bedroom ... and they'd ask questions. Did I know my phone number and address? If I ever got lost, how would I get home? They were surprised, at that young age, I could tell them my address and phone number. I was happy because I could tell they were proud that I knew those things.

"Being with family ... going to parks ... I've kept those memories. Nobody should grow up without their parents in their life."

Luella Jones, by all accounts, was a loving, caring, protective and doting mother — the kind who made sure there was never a shortage of hugs and kisses for her six children, the hulking 6-foot-3, 326-pound player the baby of the family. She was a homemaker and, being the wife of a minister, it's imagined, deeply religious.

"She loved all of us and took care of us," Jones said. "Losing her like that, it was a huge blow to us. I didn't know what I was losing, because I was so young."

This is a special weekend in the Canadian Football League, and Sunday's game between the Argos and Alouettes at the Rogers Centre (1 p.m., TSN, RDS, CJAD Radio-800) will have significant meaning for players on both clubs. October is Cancer Awareness month. This weekend, the league's permitting its players to accent themselves and their uniforms with pink Reebok gear to support fundraising and awareness efforts in the fight to end women's cancers.

On the Argos alone, receiver Jason Barnes lost his mother, Ann, to lung cancer in 2007. Kevin Huntley's grandmother, Bertha, is a breast-cancer survivor. Brandon Isaac lost his mother, Sandra, to cervical cancer just last May.

Early testing crucial

While Isaac couldn't be reached for comment, the Argos recently produced a video (http://www.argonauts.ca/video/index/id/79887) in which he spoke candidly about his mother. He said his mother failed to get herself tested early enough, urging others not to commit the same error.

"We didn't have much but love and family," Isaac said. "It's an extremely painful disease and it kills you slow. I've seen the ups and downs ... what it does mentally and physically."

Jones had known his mother was sick, the family holding a nightly prayer vigil for her. She sat on the bed, never looking particularly weak, but likely knowing the aggressive form of pancreatic cancer was ravaging her body. Due to the family's religious beliefs, she never went for chemotherapy or radiation, determined her fate would ultimately be decided by God. Luella Jones died on Jan. 11, 1987. She was in her mid-40s.

"I remember, I actually do," Jones said, his voice quivering at times during the interview, the words coming slowly and painstakingly methodically while he composed his thoughts. "We were downstairs and my Dad was upstairs with her. I knew something was going on but couldn't register it. I believe they called an ambulance and going up to the room and seeing she wasn't there. I just had no idea what was going on. That's my only memory of that night.

"I do remember praying she would get better," Jones continued. "I obviously knew she was sick. I didn't know all the details. When it happened, my Dad said we would have to (stick) together. Our family word was together. She had gone to a better place and we have to be there for each other. Dad said she had gone to heaven and we needed to carry on for her and be strong for each other.

"She was just such a great Mom. She had so much love for us ... it was just great. She was everything to us."

The pieces to the puzzle Jones doesn't know, or can't remember, have been stitched together from talking to his siblings and gathering information over the years. He knows his eldest sister, Marcia, held the family together until Jones's father, Ronald, remarried several years later.

If there was some sense of normalcy in his life, Jones credits the morals and standards with which his siblings were instilled, thanks to his parents. Raised in the Beaches area of Toronto, the family moved to Mississauga, just west of the city, then settled in Niagara Falls, Ont., when his father remarried.

Although Jones is in his fourth CFL season, having been selected by British Columbia in the fourth round of the 2007 draft, he has shared his story with few people — and no journalists until talking to The Gazette.

Sharing the story can help

"It was tough not having her. My friends had their mothers and, I would never say this to them, but when I heard them complaining about their mothers, I would think in my head that I don't have one," said Jones, who turns 30 on Oct. 29. "I never wanted to use it to make people feel sorry. Even now, I haven't talked to a lot of people. I'm not too comfortable about sharing my experience.

"This isn't something I have to be embarrassed or ashamed about," added Jones, who signed with the Argos as a free agent last March. "Someone else hearing my story might find something in it to help them get through. It makes it worth it for me to talk about it. It can raise awareness. So many people are affected by cancer and don't know what to do or who to talk to. This has touched my life."

To this day, Jones writes his parents' initials — his father, who suffered a stroke, had high blood pressure and diabetes, died in 2009 — on his wrists before each game, taping over them so they're not exposed, which would result in a fine. On Sunday, he'll wear pink tape, spats, shoes, gloves and skullcap beneath his helmet.

He was part of the Lions' Grey Cup championship team last season and, in the euphoria following the game, paused for a moment, thinking how much more complete things would have been were his parents alive and at the game.

"Bad things happen to good people," Jones said. "I can't put the blame on anybody. That's the way life went for me. Some days I would have said: 'Why me? It's not fair'. But it still made me who I am today, and I like who I am.

"It made me stronger. They're looking down and watching. I'm still blessed to have had them in my life."

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